Essay On The Causes Of The American Indian War

The American-Indian wars were unavoidable due to the greed of white people; therefore, this war was the rise of civilization, but the fall of equality in current society. During the wars, the Indians were at disadvantage mainly because of their numbers, and lack of advanced weapons. The whites killed the Indians’ bison, which was the Indian’s main source of food and supplies, made Indians more dependent. This lead to many Indians was killed by freezing to death. The main causes of the Indian Wars in the late nineteenth century were the fact that the Americans wanted the land and the resources which the Indians had. Furthermore, this war could not be avoided because it was the fastest way to get everything in whites’ favors. Chief Joseph once said in his speech at Washington D.C, “I know that my race must change, we cannot hold our own with the white men as we are.
We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also” . This means that the Indians were willing to change, willing to adapt to become better, however, we can still see the bias voice in the speech. His people are being killed, tortured, and froze to death, why he did not use strong, full of demanding words to get equality for his people. The answer is he knew even that happened, his people still got treated poorly because of their skin color and the way they look. As a person who is living in the modern world, seeing people die on their homeland, where they were born by intruders, this saddens me. This could have been different if they worked together as brothers, they could have built a better country for both Indians and Whites. However, this is a tragic story of invaders abusing the land and the Indians all in the name of expansion, growth, and